President Barack Obama on Tuesday endorsed Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., with just four weeks left in the increasingly competitive special election for Senate.

The decision to back a member of his own party is no surprise. Obama remains a popular figure in the Bay State after winning it last year with 61 percent of the vote. Markey hopes to build a similar coalition of voters in his race against Republican Gabriel Gomez.

"Ed Markey is a passionate and effective champion for middle class and working families, and we need him in the Senate to keep moving our country forward," Obama said in a statement.

Obama praised Markey's record of helping businesses create jobs, his work on fuel economy standards and the longtime congressman's position on gun control. In the race to fill the remaining 18 months of former Sen. John Kerry's term, Obama said, "Markey will continue that great tradition" of Massachusetts senators.